The Kinks’ Ray Davies Sick of Wes Anderson Paying His Bills, To Release Solo LP in February

"Did you check the post today, darling?" former Kinks singer/songwriting Ray Davies asked between sips of his early afternoon latte.

"Oh, it's just a bunch of AARP pamphlets, as usual," replied an aging blonde, whose twinkling eyes were the last vestige of the 1960s knockout she once was.

"Wait, here you go. It's another one of those royalties checks from that Anderson chap. I guess he made another one of his quirky motion pictures this year," the woman chirped.

"Ah, fuck!" said Davies, grabbing the check begrudgingly. "Have I no shame?" he muttered under his breath. "Have I no shame..."

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Former Kinks frontman Ray Davies, the force behind such classic albums as Arthur and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, will finally see his new solo record arrive Stateside February 19. Working Man's Cafe, Davies' supposed "American record," was initially released October 22 in the UK, appearing for free a day earlier in the Sunday Times newspaper in a strategy also employed by Prince with the release of this year's Planet Earth.

The LP is only Davies' second official solo release after 2006's Other People's Lives, in addition to the 1985 film-and-album combo featuring Return to Waterloo and the partly spoken-word autobiographical live album, The Storyteller. Unfortunately, Working Man's Cafe is not a concept album about Davies getting shot in the leg while chasing down muggers in New Orleans. It does, however, include these tracks: